Iran Deportation Flight Cancelled on Arizona Tarmac as Judge’s Order Is Tested

A deportation flight carrying 11 Iranian nationals was cancelled on an Arizona tarmac on Sunday, hours after a legal group told a federal judge the removal appeared to breach her order on wartime deportations to Iran.

The flight was, in the words of an attorney for the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, “ready for takeoff” before it was called off and the detainees were moved back to detention. The group had said in court filings overnight that Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned to remove the 11 people — 10 men and one woman — at about 4am on Sunday, flying them to Islamabad in Pakistan, with a transfer to Iran planned for Tuesday 10 November.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the department “does not comment on prospective removal operations, including flight schedules, passenger manifests, destinations, or individual case details.”

A flight ready for takeoff

According to the group’s filing, the detainees learned of the plan when an Iranian official met one of them and six other men at an Arizona detention centre on Friday, showed him a flight list carrying 11 names, and said they had 15-day temporary visas to Pakistan and would be taken to Iran if Iranian airspace stayed open.

The group says the removal would have broken the terms set by US District Judge Ana C. Reyes, who ordered 24 hours’ notice of any finalised removal plan and at least five days’ written notice before any Iranian is placed on a plane for removal. Its last written notice from the government came on 3 November, it said, so only three business days would have passed before the planned Sunday flight.

The government responded to the group’s notice under seal the same day. As of Monday, there had been no ruling, no contempt finding and no official confirmation of whether the flight left. The case is the latest test of the courts’ power over removals: last week, a federal judge blocked a US flight that would have sent Afghans to Taliban control.

The judge’s warning

The dispute traces back to a two-hour hearing on 15 October, when a Justice Department lawyer disclosed in open court that the administration was making plans to deport Iranian nationals to Iran through third countries, even though the United States is at war with Iran.

“Your Honor, one of the questions that you had asked is whether there are any planned removals to Iran,” Justice Department attorney Dimitar Georgiev-Remmel told the court. “The answer in August was no. Today that answer has changed and it is yes.”

Judge Reyes, of the federal district court in Washington, pressed him on the point. “We are going to remove people in our custody to a country with which we are at war?” she asked, describing the risk to the deportees as, at a minimum, “a serious threat of certain death”. Georgiev-Remmel replied: “Yes, your honor. The government is executing lawful orders of removal.”

The judge warned she would open contempt proceedings if either of her notice orders was violated. “If anything happens that violates either of those two orders, I will hold every single person associated with violating it. I will start contempt proceedings,” she said.

Secret talks during the war

The October hearing came to light when court documents were unsealed on Thursday 5 November, in a case brought by the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund. According to Associated Press reporting, the documents show the Trump administration held secret talks with Iran on deporting Iranians even as the war dragged on, maintaining contacts with Iranian officials to submit travel documents and work out “possible avenues for removal”.

The developments come as Trump has described the war with Iran as effectively over after talks mediated by Qatar. Hundreds of emails exchanged between US immigration officials showed the two countries had already worked together to fly more than 100 Iranians back to Iran on three immigration flights in September and December 2025 and January 2026.

A case built on shared information

The lawsuit, Iranian American Legal Defense Fund v. Rubio, was filed on 7 July 2026 in federal district court in Washington. It alleges that immigration agencies have been sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with the Iranian government, in breach of national immigration regulations — a claim the Department of Homeland Security has denied.

The group says at least a dozen Iranian detainees were notified over the past week that they were being deported to Iran, with some told it could happen as soon as Sunday. It says they were contacted by the Iranian Interest Section, the office in Pakistan’s embassy in Washington that handles Iran’s consular affairs.

One detainee attempted suicide after learning he might be returned to Iran, according to Yasmine Chubin, the group’s executive director. Iran claimed four tankers were destroyed by mines near the Strait of Hormuz last week, and Tehran’s government has been cracking down on dissent at home.

What happens next

The judge has not yet ruled on the group’s notice that the planned Sunday flight breached her order, and the government has not said whether it still intends to remove the 11 detainees. For now, they remain in US detention — and whether the cancelled flight was a one-off retreat or a pause before another attempt will become clear only when the government tells the court what it plans next.